The most difficult addiction!

[Darla]

Have to be women's clothes. It occurs to me that no other obsession/addiction (some days it feels like that) is as front and center as dressIng.

Really - I see women's clothes every 5 minutes or less. Shop windows, a cute pair of pumps worn by a coworker - temptation is all around us! If you're an alcoholic (no offense to those recovering) you try to avoid areas that might tempt you. We can't escape the constant barrage of images and clothes. And really I'll hypothesize that 80% of all clothes are made for women.

And I don't mean to draw the hard comparison between life threatening addictions, it's just in male mode I feel outnumbered and somedays drowned in the feminine around me. And to be honest some days I just love surrendering to the feeling!

Darla

[suzy1]

I also suffer dreadfully from this terrible addiction.

If anybody finds a cure then please, please, please keep it to yourself!

SUZY

[sonna]

I also suffer dreadfully from this terrible addiction.

If anybody finds a cure then please, please, please keep it to yourself!

SUZY

..............agreed..............

[RADER]

Yes; It can be hard to explain, but it is true. I get a tone of Catalogs from all the
Womans wear company's. IE Romans, Lane Bryant, Woman With-In Etc.
It is hard to page thought them with out spotting something nice, or to put on
a wish list. It would be easy to run up a charge bill like the national dept.
Like you said, it is Addicting.......but so much fun.
Rader

[Kate Simmons]

The clothing is a vehicle we utilize to become who we want to be.

[docrobbysherry]

Compulsive disorders don't run in my family. And, I've never known what that feels like. Not until I began dressing at age 50, anyway! Call it what u will: compulsion, addiction, obsession, WHATEVER!

All I know is, I NEVER seem to have enuff female things and NEVER become Sherry without every other important thing in my life simply DISAPPEARING from my thots! Bankruptcy anyone?

[STACY B]

Maybe thats why some join the Service ? Getta way ? Same clothes all the time ,,,Not much change ,, Hey just a thought ?

[sterling12]

Buying lots of clothes might be a compulsion, but being transgendered is probably "hard-wired" inside of you. As Kate mentioned, buying The Clothes, and The Wigs, and the fingernails, and a whole bunch of other stuff, is more likely a "manifestation" of a Desire to be very feminine. Sort of a "Be The Best Girl you can Be" sort of thing, and we think The Accoutrements are The Way to get us there.

I think we "go a little crazy" with all the buying because subconsciously we are trying to make up for lost time, and unlike a lot of teenage girls, we missed our period of hedonistic self-indulgence, when clothing, and Looks is a preoccupation. Consider that we are "just trying to balance The Scales," and find some sort of happy median. Hopefully, after X Number of years, we tend to "even-out," and find a non-driven sort of balance. Hope you do too.

Peace and Love, Joanie

[Frédérique]

And really I'll hypothesize that 80% of all clothes are made for women.

[SIZE="2"]You don’t suppose that women are trying to be CONTAINED, do you? [/SIZE]

And I don't mean to draw the hard comparison between life threatening addictions, it's just in male mode I feel outnumbered and somedays drowned in the feminine around me. And to be honest some days I just love surrendering to the feeling!

[SIZE="2"]I wonder if females feel the same way about the preponderance of male garments and male attitudes. Do they feel obligated to surrender to the inevitable, and ditch the dress they are allowed to wear? This comes at a price, I suppose, but SHE can’t wait to pay it…
[/SIZE]

[ReineD]

- temptation is all around us! If you're an alcoholic (no offense to those recovering) you try to avoid areas that might tempt you.

No! Well, maybe in the beginning you need to avoid bars and liquor stores, but eventually you learn that the world and your friends & family will not stop drinking just because you have, and so you change something within yourself where you no longer feel triggered. And then you can enjoy going anywhere you want to!

[xdressed]

I'd imagine a food addiction might be a bit more difficult. We could avoid female clothes if we really truly wanted, but you're still going to do if you avoid any contact with food

[Karren H]

I don't know.... chocolate is right up there as is ice hockey.... for me.....

[kimdl93]

If I thought I were addicted to women's clothing, then I'd see help. In some sense, I see womens clothing as a means to an end....the end being that I can at least pretend to be myself while I'm dressed. I am speaking for myself, of course.

[Darla]

I think maybe I need to dig a little deeper here - the clothes are just truly thrilling somedays, because not so much what they are, honestly a woman's shirt is just cut a little differently than a mans, but what they represent to me. And I get more of a thrill most times from a woman wearing a particular item than if it were on a rack. On a pretty girl a piece of clothing comes alive - its being used as it was intended, to accentuate a collar bone or graceful neck, or make ones legs and badonadonk look great. Its that swirly girly vibe that just shouts out how feminine one can be when I see great clothes.

And Freddy - I won't say buzzkill - but yes, that surrendering to the feminine is like a waking dream. Yeah - the pink fog. And we are like adolescents in our development. We get caught up in image despite the fact that it would take an act of god for me to pass. And I do acknowledge that all these clothes are wonderful but are a mechanism for distraction, objectification, and a wrecking ball to so many womens self esteem. Yes - I'm aware - but I still cant help myself! The concentrated focus of The Fashion Industry is designed to make us all weak in the knees. I'm just the wrong gender. I was just caught in the blast radius.

That said, every day is ecstacy, but more often not agony because those Jimmy Choos were never meant for me.

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Darla, No one ever told you that being a lady was going to be easy now did they.

It's a CROSS that we have to bear.

[susan54]

I think I woul dhave to admit I am addicted. Owning 565 dresses and 999 skirts (at 999 it is one in one out) and about 2000 tops is not normal, even for a woman. I used to be a normal cross-dresser, aspiring to Marks & Spencer and occasionally LTS. Then I went to a style consultant. She introduced me to upmarket clothes and there is no way back. The quality and feel of really nice materials and tailoring cannot be compared with chain stores. Even buying in sales when the discounts can be incredible is financially crippling - because you don't stop at one garment. Just bought a stunning half price Marc Jacobs dress that cost £162 but also got 70% off a dress in Phase Eight (if you haven't tried Phase Eight, the clothes are in a different league from most High Street) and some unbelievable bargains in East, who have the very nicest summer dresses that are actually really cool to wear. Boutiques are often the source of the best sale bargains (sometimes over 90% off), but there are pitfalls when you find that extraordinary skirt that isn't actually in the sale. If you control your buying the high quality sale clothes are cheaper than the High Street. Control. Ha ha. Department Stores have this particular hazard called a Personal Shopper who is a joy to deal with, taking your purse in a direction that had never occurred to you. Brands like Planet, Kew, Damsel in A Dress, Coast. That is not to say that the likes of Wallis are overlooked - but Dorothy Perkins and River Island just don't cut the mustard. Last month I decided to call a halt as I have no more room. This month I have spent about £500. Addict, addict, addict.

[Amalthea]

Here's my opinion:
I do not see women's clothing as an addiction. It is a need and perhaps for some a want. I also need to eat, to work and to sleep but it might only become an addiction if I have an eating disorder or being a workaholic (no offense intended also). My need is to crossdress and to fulfill this need I buy female clothing. I enjoy shopping and I certainly enjoy wearing. Does over indulging in acquiring female clothing an addiction, or overspending on girl clothing the addiction. Like Kim said, one is the means, the other is the end. I fulfill my need.

[linda allen]

I don't think that by calling crossdressing an "addiction" you are being fair to those folks who are truly addicted to drugs, smoking, alcohol, etc. Those are true addictions.

Crossdressing might be compulsive behavior, but it's not an addiction in the true sense of the word. Perhaps some folks use the word to justify their inability to stop the behavior.

Dress if you wish (I do), but don't blame it on an addiction.

[ReluctantDebutant]

I wouldn't be surprised if was an addiction. Has anyone scanned a CD's brian while dressed and compared it to an addict's on their addiction? I bet the active parts of the brain would be the same.

[ReineD]

Crossdressing might be compulsive behavior, but it's not an addiction in the true sense of the word. Perhaps some folks use the word to justify their inability to stop the behavior.

No, of course the need to express alternate-than-birth gender is not an addiction or a compulsion. It's a real need to be oneself, if one falls either outside the gender binary or is at the opposite end of the gender binary than birth.

The compulsion comes in the ways there are to express this need, and the behaviors that are associated with it. For example, not all CDs/TGs will develop shopping compulsions or will hoard more clothing or any one type of clothing than they can possibly wear, but some will. And not all will develop sexual compulsions to the point where they impact life negatively, (get in the way of relationships or even work) but some will.

We need to separate the need for a MtF to express femininity, and the excess that sometimes goes along with this for some people and to varying degrees.

[Love2Dress]

Probably bras, I love the way they feel on my chest, just so natural, I also enjoy wearing lipstick, I would wear it a lot more but it gives off a scent

[Cheryl T]

It's not an addiction, it's a lifestyle.

[Claire Cook]

Sure it's an addiction .. just like breathing and peeing. Can't do without any of them!

[GinaD]

This in an interesting topic. I wonder if the euphoric feeling I get when dressing isn't a result of endorphins or dopamine or whatever being released, which is similar to others under the influence of other substances. I can honestly say I find the results most pleasurable, and want to relive the feelings again and again. It may be an addiction.

[Rogina B]

I feel it is a trait that you are born with..like others have said.Sometimes one of us hasn't zeroed in on the best dressing style for themselves,so they tend to look far and wide,and buy and buy..But real GGs do that as well..lol